Bit of a Problem
by Lokaia
Summary: MalSimon. Written as a challenge: give me a pairing and a theme. This theme was "awkward".


Title: Bit of a Problem  
Author: Lokaia  
Rating: PG-13  
(A/N): Meme challenge - give me a pairing and a phrase or theme. This was Simon/Mal and "awkward". I thought it was fitting.

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It's dinnertime. Dinner, loud and fun, stories passed around with bland protein, everyone laughing and talking. Jayne makes a derogatory comment to Inara and Kaylee fills a spoon full of protein-muck and launches it at him. Which creates another bout of laughter.

Simon laughs, but it's distracted. Mal sits across from him, at the head of the table, laughing as loudly as the rest, muck resting precariously on the end of his spoon. His collar is unbuttoned - it usually is. But it isn't usually dragged so far to the right like that.

The mark on his collarbone wouldn't usually be so apparent. Simon's eyes wouldn't usually be drawn to the edge of purple and red, tight, neat lines indicating teeth marks.

Simon wouldn't usually be having flashbacks of giving said mark to his captain at the dinner table.

They'd been in the stairwell. Simon was heading down to the med lab, Mal up to see Wash. They'd seen each other, but that was it - _seen_. No more. Simon, personally, had been going crazy. Mal had seemed no worse for the wear.

Of course, when he reached out and grabbed the young doctor by the collar, dragged him over and pressed him against the wall, Simon could guess the captain _was_ affected somehow.

The hand railing pressed into the small of his back, but that was a far-away worry that Simon didn't concern himself with. More important concerns included the captain's hand still fisted in his collar, the captain's lips on the skin just below his ear, and the captain's free hand on his hip. And when Simon's brain cells wake up and dust themselves off, he presses his palm to Mal's neck, the other to his waist to bring them closer, grind their hips together, and bite his lip so he can't cry out.

When the captain moves away, he's apologetic-- in expression and tone. "Wash's waitin'," is his reasoning for releasing the doctor and moving back.

But it's been awhile. Simon gets stressed, easily, likes the tiny bit of normalicy that sex and want and lust can bring - even if its sex and want and lust with a man, and his captain, no less. It's why he moves his hold to Mal's shirt, the first three buttons ripped away, his hold on the captain's waist tightening and bringing him forward. Hips are ground together again as his lips find Mal's collarbone, settle over it and mark.

And mark.

And mark.

By the time the bite comes in, Mal's hips are moving even without the urging of Simon's hand, his hands braced against the wall, panted breath hot against Simon's neck. And when he pushes away with a few well-placed Chinese curses, most involving 'tease', he _glares_ at the doctor. "And what'm I s'posed to do about this _now_, doc?"

Simon just shrugs, letting his face be impassive as he calmly steps forward to re-do Mal's buttons. "Keep your shirt closed, _captain_. Won't be a problem."

Which is, Simon suspects, probably why those three buttons on Mal's shirt are open at the dinner table. To _create_ a problem. For Simon. Who can't seem to remember how to chew. There was something about inhaling, right...? Or was that breathing? Damn, now he's forgotten that, too.

"Simon."

He blinks and glances over to Kaylee to realize that-- everyone is watching him. Everyone. And Mal's got a very amused smirk on his face. "Uh-- sorry, what?" he asks, keeping his eyes on _Kaylee_.

"I was... um..." Her face is pink. Kaylee is blushing and this is not a good sign. Simon glances around the table again: Zoe is impassive, other than the small smile, Wash is looking downright _amused_, Jayne looks kind of sick, Inara and Book look uncomfortable. Kaylee's still blushing.

And River? River's just eating her dinner like a good little sister.

"Awkward: Not graceful; ungainly. Not dexterous; clumsy. Clumsily or unskillfully performed. Difficult to handle or manage. Difficult to effect; uncomfortable. Marked by or causing embarassment or discomfort. Requiring great tact, ingenuity, skill and discretion. As taken by the Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, hundred-and-fifteenth Edition." She looks up then, food ignored for the moment as innocent eyes blink at Simon. "You're fitting quite a few of those today."

As his face begins to burn, Simon just glares at her. Yup. Definitely his sister.


End file.
